Overview
- In January, TikTok tallied more than 2.5 million tagged videos with about 1.2 billion views and Instagram saw roughly 850,000 posts, with around a quarter of activity coming from the United States, the United Kingdom and Spain.
- The meme emerged as an ironic late-2025 joke and surged after a December 31 TikTok compilation of 2016 moments went viral, though reporting cautions that attribution to a single trigger is limited.
- Celebrity posts from Shakira, Kendall and Kylie Jenner, Meghan Markle, Taylor Swift, Billie Eilish, Harry Styles and Timothée Chalamet propelled the challenge into wider culture.
- About 68% of participants are 18–34, and psychologists say the appeal reflects emotion-focused coping during a period of major societal change.
- The revival is reshaping style and beauty with skinny jeans, chokers, matte lipstick, bold eye makeup, bomber jackets and platform or wedge sneakers returning in updated form, even as critics note it glosses over 2016’s crises.